BBOE REGULAR BOARD MEETING February 15, 2022

001take this thank you all right so this is a call to order of the first regular meeting for february the bridgeport board of education today is tuesday february 15th and the time is 6 36 pm mr secretary would you call the roll yes uh sybil allen here christine baptist perez erica castillo president michael macaron president joseph sakalovic president bobby brown present john weldon present and joseph lombard here okay you all stand for pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberties all right student representative reports we have three reps here if you'd identify yourself by name we'll start with you who's on your left at the end of the table state your name for

002the record and if you have anything to report so my name is avery fleckner i'm from fairchild wheeler i.t and don't much to report but we are planning a couple things so we're currently planning hopefully the pep rally will get pushed to march we planned it in the winter and then covered pushed it so hopefully it'll be pans in march um we just had an open house last week last thursday once successful a ton of people came we bragged about our school a lot it was great okay thank you my name is elena khan from fairchild wheeler arrow and um currently we're planning a campus-wide black history month event whoever's um participating remotely if you'd mute yourself unless you're actively speaking so we're planning a campus-wide black history month event that'll take place on the

00324th and um one of our engineering and math teachers um david viesto he's been selected for a all-expense teacher training um this summer at walt disney and walt disney chooses 50 teachers um nationally to partake in this and yeah if they're recognized as exceptional teachers that are passionate about um their jobs they get chosen and one of our teachers david fiesta got chosen so um that's what we had to report at aero okay thank you my name is nyla carter i'm representing bridgeport military academy um there's a couple things that have been happening at our school the first semester is also positive start cadets are adjusting to all their new classes and teachers bma is celebrating black history month with the door decorating competition each homeroom class is decorating a door and the best winning

004door will get a sponsored breakfast bma's ptso meeting is having breakfast with the principal on thursday all parents are able to join the lottery closes this month and the lottery will run next month to welcome next year's freshman class s.a.t tutoring is taking place in order to prepare the junior class for their big test next month bma's second teachers and student volleyball coach has a game plan for march and the njrotc program will be attending a drill team competition in new jersey next month okay thank you next on the agenda's public comment yeah i believe you have somebody i know french one oh miss ferguson you're participating remotely um what school are you from um are you muted do you have anything to report hey perhaps you stepped away okay next on the agenda is

005public comment we have five speakers first is jamar brown peace and blessings um excuse my back for everybody behind me um my name is coach marty brown um first and foremost i'm not going to take too much of your time i just thought it was relevant that i showed up to a border at me and i haven't been here in a few years um my original reason why i came is um i thought a dream of mine for 18 years would have finally got accomplished with me coaching high school basketball in the city um i thought i was going to get the job for the central freshman as of today i have not heard from human resources they went on and hired the coach already the the the disrespect i was shown of how much

006as i have done in the community and sacrifice really hurt me that was the main reason also i passed out a flyer to the border maybe about two months ago to get approved so it could go through our schools so we can get some young men and women in our program because we do great things i haven't heard back from the border yet what i'm saying is i don't badmouth anyone a lot of people in here know exactly who i am and they know my work but the way i was treated by central high school and aboard a head i'm holding back tears now i was so disappointed and so disrespected because if you knew he was going to hire a coach that was there in the late 70s over a young man that actually

007worked with these young ladies let me know and i want to appreciate miss olga from human resources she kept it respectful she knew what was going on but she couldn't tell me so she would tell me mr tim will call you back and i'm going on a month right now and i haven't heard anything and if someone can help me with the flyer with something i've been asking for for almost 18 years 19 years please help me get access to these schools these schools being open can help some of these young men and women be successful these these city community i owe the bridgeport ymca a large amount of money because i'm trying to keep this program open when the bridgeport board of ed could obviously help us help them somehow some way i apologize

008if i ran over my time i just wanted to let you guys know about the first issue and if this is not going to be my first meeting i will be back because we definitely need access to the schools thank you good evening board of ed members superintendent testani bridgeport community members and my bea colleagues my name is anna bautista president of the bridgeport education association and i'm here tonight to advocate for teachers receiving the hero's pay the covet pandemic has been extremely difficult on everyone but perhaps no group has taken on more work and more risk to their health to make the school district run than the nearly 1500 members of the bea last year during the height of the pandemic our members did double duty simultaneously teaching students who were learning remotely from

009their homes while also educating the students in the classroom in front of them they remained mass for hours at a time as they instructed students the vast majority of whom were and are still unvaccinated including many who could not or simply would not wear a mask they ate lunch with their elementary school students daily they wiped the running noses and teary eyes of scared and confused young students every day they took on additional responsibilities to keep students and their families safe by constantly reminding them to mask up and by sanitizing classrooms student desk and other high touch areas they worked with limited resources as many of their instructional material [Music] well b.o.e meetings were on keep going while boe meetings were understandably held remotely teachers were in their classrooms working in person with children and

010colleagues doing their best to minimize the educational harm caused by this insidious pandemic and to provide the educational environment our students need and deserve our members stepped up to ensure that bridgeport students continued to learn and thrive in the most academically socially and emotionally supportive environment possible and while they did not always do it fearlessly they stepped up each and every day bravely and reliably and professionally now it's your turn to step up and demonstrate your appreciation for what all our members did over and over the norm during these unprecedented times the bea strongly supports the superintendent's proposal to reward bridgeport teachers their heroes pay thank you and i as i always say we are bridgeport strong thank you thank you joseph to grow yes i was here just to yield my time to ms

011batista thank you for very for letting her complete her thank you mr degrow joanne kennedy thank you okay spell it was not here that's the last speaker public comment is concluded next on the agenda is approval of board minutes we have two meetings to approve january 24th regular public meeting is there a motion to approve the move moved by mr benahan is there a second second second by ms allen is there any discussion or edits all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions january 24th 2022 special meetings there a motion to approve motion to approve by ms baptiste perez is there a second second second by mr benehan is there any discussion or edits all in favor all right any opposed any abstentions ms castillo abstains because she was not present um i'm going to

012dispense with the chairman's report and move to committee reports and referrals ad hoc district-wide branding initiative uh mr chair we will meet um this actually on tomorrow at 6 pm at central high school in the central high school library okay any referrals okay next is the contracts committee contracts committee is going to meet tomorrow at the central high school library at 6 30. we are going to address uh matters relating to installation of new weight room equipment at central high school issuing an rfp for special ed auditing services issuing an rfp for student transportation services and awarding a contract for athletic training services are there any referrals educational diversity equity and inclusion even everybody um yes we have met on what day did we meet i'm sorry january 31st and um we went over the

013aim of the committee which i'd like to refresh the minds of everybody here the committee will seek to rectify apologize i'm reading from the last part we're going to apply a data-driven information to apply an equity lens the entire virtual public school system to identify any and all policies procedures services and or programs that are disparately impacting any distinct group of students and or staff the committee will seek to rectify any issues found through committee discussions research and will also make other referrals to other committees create focus groups and make referrals to the full board for further action and also seek to promote initiatives and activities that promote unity among bridgeport public schools diverse student body staff and the greater bridgeport public school communities and in our first meeting we um reviewed data from last

014year about staffing levels and the diversity just to refresh our memories we have just to bring everybody up to date again we have a very wide gap between our hispanic popular student population and our teaching population which we need to try to rectify and to a lesser extent uh african-american students to african-american teachers is also in need of some help and we also reviewed ap courses by student demographic it's going to bear a further look i've got to break the data down a little more distinctly because some areas females were outpacing males in some areas males were outpatient females in contrast to the top population but that data wasn't given to us um per student i didn't ask for the data for student for um distinct kids taking more than one ap course so that

015make that balance maybe come back into play and i'm looking forward to the work on this committee and doing great things that we may not ever see in our lifetimes but they will matter in the end thank you and the next meeting will be on february to february 22 i'm sorry february 22nd 6 30 central library okay any referrals nice job okay facilities committee is going to meet on march 1st at 6 30 p.m at central high school the agenda is currently being developed is going to be based on items that have been um requested in the recent past any further referrals i have a referral uh pursuant to the article that was in the connecticut post from january 20 2022 there's a concern regarding the hvac system at columbus school and um from that

016article i read there's a concern that it's inhibiting students from learning if the classroom's cold and teachers and students can't focus based on the temperature so if that can get looked into um i would like to bring it into a community facility with mr george garcia we have to talk and try to discuss about hospital in um edison school i know we spoke um years back but i would like to bring that back because i don't want parents think like we want to close to school something negative we need to do better school for our children so what we can do what is the plan i know mr garcia maybe they can bring us the update what's going on with the schools so i'd like to bring that to the committee please okay anything else

017okay finance committee yes thank you the finance committee met on the 26th and uh most of the items are appearing on the agenda so i won't uh trouble you trouble everybody with those um but one thing i want to lift up is um recently the governor put out a revised budget request that impacts springfield public schools to the tune of 1.5 million dollars less than it's already in the budget so we need to be mindful and everybody here needs to come get out contact the governor and our state reps to increase the funding by maybe 1.5 2.5 not cut funding 1.5 million dollars one way in these dire straits there's going to be a public hearing of um educational budget committee on thursday february 17th on the state level so if anybody could tune into

018that just give testimony it would be appreciated and very helpful and our next meeting will be on february 23rd at 6 pm central library okay any referrals just me to chair i have a one and i believe we spoke about that but i want to be sure for the record uh remember we talk about the monetary contribution for the charter school okay so please you know make sure it's in an agenda thank you sir all right governance committee met on february 10th we had a discussion with the make the road connecticut youth group regarding student transportation and we had discussion regarding the high school magnet policy and the policy related to public comment the next meeting no action was taken the next meeting will be on march 7th at 6 30 at central high school

019and we'll continue to work on those two policies there any referrals okay personnel committee a personnel committee is going to be held on february 24th at 5 15 at central high school library purpose is going to be to interview some candidates for two positions one being executive direction executive director of specialized instruction and the other one being the assistant director of grants um i'm also going to refer to that committee to start the discussion i'm not intending to go very far with it because of the interviews but to discuss board involvement in the interview process it's currently the personnel committee that interviews has a step of interviews in certain phases i'm not sure how appropriate that is it becomes difficult and sometimes it hinders the overall hiring process because we're trying to get together so

020i'd like to see how we can continue some level of board involvement while we do it in a way that doesn't negatively impact the overall hiring process so we'll start that discussion there are there any referrals okay students and families thank you mr chair um student family we're supposed to meet um uh the 17 but with the study for me that those that i want to have at some meetings so some staff that cannot be in my committee so i first wanted for the next week i had to talk with my committee to see what day next week between monday tuesday you know i have to check the day i know some um chairs have another meeting too so we can have it but we have a meeting the 27th um already and um really

021really um a meeting and i want to be sure for the record and and know that we could design you know we spoke to that that we have enough to when i search and when i ask for information it very obviously with the share and then everyone that this information that we have here is about the budget how the pac and ppas are using the money how to spend the money who's the vendors and how to educate our parents we have some situations that are um they are not spending the money correctly and i've already spoken with the study that we're going to try to do somewhere on workshop for those leaders how and where and how they can spend the money for our parents it's very sad that did not um report it exactly

022and sometimes they don't report it with the principles how to work together so in that situation that's not even trying to do something to work together so all these pack leaders um understand how to spend the money so the next meeting um i have to contact my committee to see what the exactly for next week and i will email everyone to let them know that's it mr chess thank you any referrals okay teaching and learning yes the teaching and learning committee has not met in the interim and as tonight was the regularly scheduled meeting i am in search of a new date for this and i got to confer with my committee members to come up with uh alternative okay any referrals superintendent's report thank you mr chair excuse me um just one item i'd

023like to report because i know that we have three extremely critical items that need to be discussed tonight but i just wanted to say um the bridgeport public schools were asked today to participate and present at the social emotional learning collaborative collaboration of the connecticut state department of ed as well as three other districts on the efforts of being done on behalf of students and families here in the bridgeport public schools in response to social emotional learning so it was a great honor i want to say thank you to miss roca reyes and miss stevens who did an excellent job presenting alongside of me and um we also had an audience of legislators that participated in the collaborative um who raised some great questions in terms of sustainability when it came to the efforts that

024we've implemented as a result of esser and arp esser funds so it was uh an excellent opportunity to garner support amongst the legislative body to advocate on our behalf for funding so that these are sustainable um items that we can continue beyond september 30th of 2024 but it was an honor to be able to present today on all the things that we've been able to accomplish and that we have in place but i think as i mentioned it was also an opportunity and a forum to garner advocacy on behalf of the district amongst our legislative branch and also our community advocates across the state of connecticut other than that i know that the three items on their new business really are the main focus for tonight's meeting okay i'll ask first though does anyone have

025any questions for mr tistock okay old business there's none to be transacted new business the first item is discussion possible action on fiscal year 2022 2023 mbr increase request is there going to be a powerpoint presentation or yeah ms siegel is on i'm not sure i mean i think it was extremely helpful that um you know at the finance committee meeting we provided a lot of information similar to years past i think the main objective is the mbr increase the budget request of the city um this year was increased i believe miss baptiste perez uh made a motion to increase that request to the city to properly fund the bridgeport public schools for the 22-23 school year and um that is really the the main focus if you'd like to go i know many of

026you participated in the in the finance committee meeting what was the what was the increased dollar amount i believe was eight and a half million dollars from six million from the six million that was originally proposed in the budget request um draft so um that is what's going to be presented tonight okay siegel do you want to uh yes good evening i have shared my screen but i'm not not seeing the powerpoint on your screen okay they're working on it give them give them a minute [Music] cheers right here okay anyways um [Music] so what's happening is um if this is being shared to the internet but it's not able to be shared to this room at this point so i'm going to call for a five-minute recess uh while it gets this buttoned up

027is there a motion to that effect motion for five minute recess moved by ms baptiste perez is there a second second by mr bennehan all in favor aye opposed time is 704 pm [Music] come down [Music] okay we're gonna call the meeting back to order following the meeting back to order we all set sam okay times notice being 709 pm arlene you have the floor are you on mute is marlene present she's not i'll go through it are you marlene you need to unmute yourself she's muted can you unmute her yeah ms siegel you are muted can you unmute yourself i'm here we hear you now okay go ahead all right uh good evening we're going to present this evening the budget request for 2022-23 the request consists of four parts the fiscal framework goals

028and challenges the budget overview for 2021-22 the budget request for 2223 and an appendix with grant funded services first the fiscal framework goals and challenges our fiscal goals are a structurally balanced budget a school-based budgeting model fiscal accountability and comprehensive fiscal management this slide presents our district enrollment since 2016-17 we have lost over 2 000 students over a period of five years however in the current year since october first enrollment has been uh increasing and in the pandemic period from 10 1 19 until 10 121 we had a loss of 1081 students in that same period there has been growth of special education children and english language learners both groups require intensive services and intensive services have lower student-to-staff ratios which in turn have higher cost factors as of october 1st our l students constituted

02923.15 percent that number has now risen as of february 1st to 24.4 and special education constituted 18.23 percent of our enrollment that number has also risen to 18.4 percent at the present day ncep is the state statistic for measuring expenditures per pupil as of october 21 the last report that's available the bridgeport ncep was sixteen thousand nine hundred eighty two dollars and of 166 connecticut school districts ranked from highest to lowest bridgeport is number one for four the top section of the slide shows our five well our four peer districts five districts listed inclusive of bridgeport and for the first time since i've been in the district um bridgeport is not the lowest among the five it uh has finally exceeded uh waterbury by a slight amount um hartford is the highest at twenty one

030thousand eight hundred thirty three dollars and so if bridgeport were equitably funded with hartford our budget would rise by 95 million dollars now ncep uh is a statistic that affects a concept known as special education excess cost and this is applied to out-of-district placements when a special education child is placed out of district the district is required to pay four and a half times the ncep plus a percentage of the balance of the total cost so for example if an out of district placement has a cost factor of a hundred thousand dollars and nc ep is our our current number um ncep times 4.5 would equal 76 418 dollars and the difference is 23 582. if the cap is 29.11 then we also have to pay 29.11 percent times that difference which in this example

031is six thousand eight hundred sixty five dollars and so the total district share would be eighty three thousand two eighty three and the excess cost grant would pay sixteen thousand seven seventeen so the important points about the slide are that ncep is influencing how much money the district has to pay toward an out of district placement and also that that amount is affected by the annual cap now for this year the preliminary cap uh is 18 about 18 that's not the final cap it could still increase or decrease before the end of the year but that was a positive development that we were pleased to see and hopefully it will remain in that range and also last year a pandemic year the cap actually fell to 16.52 so in the current year we believe it's

032increasing but it doesn't seem to be increasing to the same level that it was in prior years so that again is a positive development in that we have to pay less of the difference between the ncep amount and the total cost now special education based on the 2021 education finance system report known as efs constituted 26.87 percent of um total budget and over 90 million dollars was spent on special education that is divided between in-district expenditures and out-of-district expenditures and the out-of-district expenditures actually higher but the number that we're showing on the screen approximately 21 million is net of the excess cost grant that we just explained which in 2021 was approximately 6.2 million dollars and that was with the cap of 16.52 percent now we have a school allocation model it consists of four

033parts a position allocation which is built on equitable and uniform staffing formulas with consideration for school specific needs we have an operating allocation that has been increased to 30 dollars per student in the current year with sr funding increased from twenty dollars per student the teachers choice allocation is a school specialty e-cod that is allocated to each classroom teacher that is usually thirty dollars per teacher but we've increased it to fifty dollars per teacher with esser funds in the current year and we have a parent involvement allocation that is based on the title one formula that requires one percent of the title one appropriation to be allocated to uh student to be allocated for parent involvement and the current per capita in 2122 is 9.45 per student now for the high schools we use the

034state priority grant to provide parity with the elementary formula which is based on title 1 and parity with the per capita amount and the parent involvement allocation does require submission of a budget plan approved by the principal and the pac ptso president we face fiscal challenges every year we could also describe our challenges as fiscal pressures or variables and we institute measures to try to control these variables and of course we monitor the impact continually and those variables include utility costs legal services transportation benefits for personnel absence coverage and of course special education and english language learner services which as i mentioned earlier have lower student-to-staff ratios and in general require more intensive educational services this slide presents some examples of cost control management that we have utilized and are still in place our prior

035transportation contract i say prior because the contract well it's in effect for this year will be expiring as of june 30 2022 and we will be presenting to the contracts committee tomorrow and rfp for a new contract but we did negotiate previously very low inflationary rates in that contract as you can see on the screen we also have recently renegotiated our contract with xerox to obtain new equipment and to ensure that every school has a color mfd a multi-function device in the main office and we negotiated very competitive rates with our substitute staffing services and of course the facilities department continues to institute energy conservation measures now our transportation costs last year amounted to approximately 20.2 million dollars but that was a pandemic year in the current year with in-person instruction resuming fully we are

036projecting over 22 million dollars and so the expenses are rising in alignment with the pre-pandemic years and in alignment with the services that are being provided this slide illustrates our core curriculum renewal cycle the curriculum programs are critical of course to the educational process and we are focused on optimizing our fiscal resources to meet the core academic objectives and we include this slide to illustrate the cost factors for updating or renewing a curriculum program and you can see on the first line that reading wonders for four grades k one two and three introduced in 1920 with a six-year program was almost 1.2 million dollars we're operating on a cycle that is described as pay as you go meaning that in each year we have one or two renewal initiatives and the intent is to ensure

037that the cost in each year is affordable and in that way curriculum can be renewed consistently as new knowledge and new techniques become available now we'll move on to part two and i'll do a brief overview of the 2122 budget so in 2122 we have an operating budget of approximately 260 million dollars we did receive in 2122 from the city an additional two million dollars and from the state in the alliance ecs grant an additional uh one million five hundred thirty thousand the city share is 27.3 percent and state share 72.7 percent we have major federal and state grants that are part of our comprehensive financial and educational plan and therefore those grants are uh listed on the federal side uh title one of course would be included and um idea idea is the federal

038grant for special education uh it covers mandated special education services that is one of the few grants that does not have a requirement for supplemental services it actually covers mandated services and on the state side we have our state priority grant the state bilingual grant and the magnet school grants now the priority grant has been reducing has been reduced over the last few years title one has been increasing the title one is based on enrollment it's usually a year or two behind so we're remaining hopeful that we will not be impacted next year but there is the possibility of being impacted as a result of reduced enrollment so on the next slide we illustrate the enrollment trends and implications and here again it's important to understand that while enrollment has declined overall in in the

039district and as i indicated earlier we are seeing some growth of a few hundred students um in the current year since october 1st we don't know whether that trend will hold but we we we think that it that it may um but concurrently special education and l students have been growing and as of october 1st l students with 23.15 of total enrollment sped 18.23 and there may be some overlap across the two groups so we are concerned about the alliance ecs grand and i'll have more to say about that when we discuss 2223 the priority grant has been reduced by 1.9 million dollars over seven years and one hundred thirty one dollars in the current year twenty one twenty two i continue to emphasize that our populations with intensive needs special education and english language

040learners require more intensive services and so now is not a time for for the state or the city to to not fund the district properly and equitably because we need a continued continued level of resources in order to provide the services that are required and this slide is illustrating that federal and state grant funding have not kept pace with the significant growth in special ed and l enrollment in bridgeport so on the special ed side we have the idea grants which i mentioned earlier are intended for mandated services they usually increase each year but they increase slightly not substantially and our um state bilingual grant increased by 364 a minimal amount um on the federal side title three um six thousand six hundred forty dollars this slide illustrates how the operating budget is divided between

041the city and the state the city 27.3 percent the state 72.7 and the increase in revenue for 2122 of three and a half million dollars constituted 1.38 percent growth in revenue this slide illustrates the growth in revenue over a period of uh seven years and the average per year was 1.17 percent clearly that's insufficient to keep pace with escalating costs after taking into account our ongoing focused efforts at cost control and management now a discussion of funding would not be complete without mention of our essa grants essa 2 and arp esser these grants constitute a one-time infusion of federal resources we expect that these grants when they end on september 30 2024 will not be renewed there's absolutely no reason to believe at this point in time that there will be additional grants to follow

042of the same type and so they constitute a one-time infusion and they have been provided to the district to support supplemental services that focus on learning recovery acceleration and enrichment as well as the other purposes listed and the slide illustrates the types of services that we are providing so now we'll move on to part three which is the 2223 operating budget request and here again we see the pie chart on top the operating budget on the bottom the major federal and state grants that are part of our comprehensive financial and educational plan and our monetary need is 18 million dollars we're requesting eight and a half million from the city we were expecting one and a half million from the state and the gap plan would then cover 8 million now a word about the

043state expectation so last friday we learned that the governor submitted his proposed budget which has recommended adjustments to the biennial budget the biennial budget specified that bridgeport would receive another one and a half million dollars same amount as in 2122 in 2223 and that is the number that we have been incorporating into our plan the governor proposed reducing that to about eleven thousand dollars so the gap is one and a half million dollars there's now a shortfall of one and a half million dollars in the plan unless the state legislature beginning with the general assembly decide to restore it and so superintendent and i have had discussions and um a letter has been prepared superintendent i'm sure we'll comment on the status of that letter but we are going to remain optimistic that the general

044assembly will not accept the amendments proposed by the governor and will hopefully restore the alliance ecs amount to the one and a half million dollars specified in the biennial budget that was approved in now this slide illustrates the distribution of funds across the 18 million dollar monetary need and you can see that collective blogging alone is projected over five million dollars health insurance is projected at a six percent growth rate approximately 3.3 million dollars and murph which is the retirement plan for non-certified staff is expected to be 20.2 percent we have not received the final determination of the murph percentage for next year but we have been advised to plan on 20.2 percent so that would be increased from 19.05 percent in the current uh year um so we're we're projecting approximately a million dollars

045to account for for the birth increase and then we always include an increase for special education escalated costs our transportation contract as i mentioned is expiring june 30th we're going to issue an rfp after board approval and we expect to have a new contract in place by july 1st we don't know what the percentage will be but for budgeting purposes we have to incorporate a percentage and so um we're incorporating three and a half percent into the plan now keep in mind that we have been able to realize savings over the last two years and we placed the savings into our internal service fund so those funds are on deposit um available for withdrawal and even before those deposits we were carrying forward two million dollars which was a surplus in the internal service fund

046prior to the 1819 fiscal year and that's also known as pre-connecticut partnership because that was the year in which the connecticut partnership health plan was initiated in the current year 2122 as i've reported to the finance committee our current projections indicate that we may have to withdraw from the isf in order to balance the operating budget five to six million dollars now the final number may be lower could be higher but at the present time based on current information current trends it's it's in that range of five to six uh million so that six million we've broken into two parts the two million dollars that's in the isf internal service fund pre-1890 and four million dollars from the surplus we deposited at the end of the 1920 fiscal year so that's six million dollars now

047when we withdraw those funds they don't replenish you don't automatically replenish and so um when we go into the next fiscal year those those funds are no longer um you know available in the isf and we we use those funds in in the 2122 year we we expect we're going to use those funds to fill a gap so when we roll over into 2223 we don't have the money to fill that gap again so we need to refill it and that's why we have to list the 2 million and the 4 million in the chart to explain why we need 6 million dollars within the 18 million and then we have a number of vacancies um on the teacher lines as well as paraprofessional lines um due to the challenges of the pandemic in staffing

048as well as general shortages of qualified staff for educational positions when we write a new budget plan we write it with the expectation that every position will be filled now even in the best of times a district would most likely not achieve 100 percent um in a fill rate but we have to write the budget on the basis of expecting to fill when we do not fill and we cover with substitutes we have savings which help us of course to balance the budget but when we roll over and we write a new budget plan we have to account for those uh positions so that's the explanation for what i term the vacancy fill factor and then we have a small reserve and we have turnover savings that we expect to achieve every year and we

049reach a bottom line of 18 million dollars this slide breaks out the 5 million dollar increase for collective bargaining across the various unions and you can see that our teachers are the largest group filed of course by our administrators and supervisors but our teachers of course are constituting about 80 percent of the five million dollar cost factor and and that is because um in the union contract the teachers have step movement in um going into 22-23 so whenever there's step movement we have to account for approximately two million dollars in the cost factor now we're requesting uh eight and a half million from the city um that would be an increase of 12 in the um city share and uh 3.3 percent of the total uh budget and that eight and a half percent as

050you saw on the other screen would contribute partially to um all the non-discretionary costs the salary increases health insurance and and murph growth so it's approximately equal not not the amount but very close to it um this slide summarizes once again the um amount requested of the city the amount expected from the state i've already indicated that um the governor's budget lowers one and a half million to about eleven thousand dollars a quite a substantial um reduction now how do we close the gap so we we were expecting to close it with 10 million in in revenue between the state and the city that may or may not materialize and then um we would uh withdraw five million dollars from the internal service fund from from the additional savings that are on uh deposit um

051we would apply uh grant revenue um from various grants primarily uh title one which is mentioned on the slide now that assumes that there isn't a reduction in the title one appropriation for next year we're remaining hopeful that it will stay uh stable and then we would have our gap resolution strategies which include deficit prevention mode and various strategies used each year to generate savings and that would account for approximately two million dollars so what are gap resolution strategies what are some examples well there can be position consolidation and alignment with registered projections there can be position conversions after attrition for example 12-month ap vacancy could be converted to a 10-month ap position there can be a position and program adjustments that that perhaps can generate savings without having any negative impact on programmatic services

052or or outcomes through operational efficiencies and we've been fortunate over the past few years that for curriculum and technology renewal we've been able to utilize grants in lieu of funds traditionally allocated in the operating uh budget and our deficit prevention mode includes position control procurement control and internal controls right this slide further illustrates the concept of deficit prevention mode now sometimes um there is there are questions asked about what is the operating budget fund and and what do you have in the district office well the district offices is streamlined at the time we prepared this powerpoint we had 101 full-time employees in a district of of of over 19 000 uh students and the intention of this slide is to illustrate that we're providing basic services core services in a streamlined highly efficient manner and

053the next few slides have um bar graphs which um illustrate various components of the operating budget so in on this slide you can see how the total budget using the chart of accounts in munis which divides expenditures into instruction instruction support student support administration and administrative support services how it's divided and of course instruction and instructional support and student support are close to 80 percent now what is what does what do administrative support services um comprise and you can see the components on screen business facilities hr payroll people services security transportation and then technology and um and student data and not surprisingly facilities and transportation are the highest components followed by uh security and then technology and and student data and finally it's important to understand the amount spent on benefits and benefits are not

054just health insurance in the area of health insurance of course we not only have to provide for active employees but we provide for retirees paying our premium cost share of the premium but beyond that we include medicare and murph and social security where applicable unemployment insurance workers comp and life insurance so there are many components and the total is 64.7 million dollars and finally this is a a summary that our need is 18 million we're requesting eight and a half from the city one and a half from the state and the other statistics are summarized on the screen part 4 is an appendix of grant funded services so um this is for reference and i'll just scroll through uh quickly to show you that it has charts with funding comparisons for key grants from the

055prior year to the current year and it has notes for each major grant on the types of services that are provided within the district's comprehensive strategic plan i'll just scroll through and that concludes the presentation of the powerpoint now before i conclude i do want to indicate that we also presented to the finance committee the 2223 food and nutrition services budget plan so i would like to take a moment to briefly describe that plan and i'll put it up on the screen because the board does have to annually approve the plan okay are you continuing oh okay go ahead go ahead uh thank you uh and i'll be i'll be brief so the the food nutrition services um budget is comprised solely of federal and state funding and we spend up to the amount of

056revenue received the district does not provide any additional funding in order to set up a budget in the financial system munis we have to request annually the city to set up um a number and the goal for us is to request a number that will always be higher than the amount of actual revenue why because by requesting a number that's higher we know that we can schedule the budget easily and we also place a projection of unrealized revenue on a separate line so i just want to emphasize at the outset that we spend only up to the amount of actual revenue received we monitor the budget continually and we make certain that we place a portion of the total on an unrealized revenue line and we monitor that line so we can increase it or

057decrease it depending upon actual revenue and so the number that we are requesting be established for next year 2223 is in yellow in this document which we provided to the board and that is 22 and how does that compare with the number in the current year well the number in the current year is 20 million four three one three five three so that is an increase of uh one million five hundred sixty nine thousand three hundred thirty dollars now in the current year um we're not going to achieve 20 million four three one three five three um we are projecting or at the time we prepared this document we were projecting this number that i'm pointing to which is approximately 19.3 million now the actual revenue may be 19.5 it may be 19.7 but at

058that point in time we were projecting around 1903 in revenue but i'd like everyone to understand that that 1903 also includes two one-time allocations which we expect not to be repeated in subsequent years where we would certainly be delighted if they were repeated but at this point we don't have information to to give us any level of assurance that there will be a repetition of these allocations next year but these allocations were called the federal emergency meal reimbursement allocation and the pandemic local level cost grant and the first one uh is almost 1.6 million and the second was 38 million dollars so substantial amounts and the revenue for the current year includes those two grants now without those two grants the revenue would be projected at around 17.7 million dollars but every year there is

059an increase in the per meal reimbursement provided by the federal government and so when we take into account uh those those reimbursement factors it's reasonable to to expect that revenue will increase annually anywhere from 700 000 to 1.2 million depending upon the reimbursement factors and assuming all other factors including participation rates and enrollment remain um relatively uh stable and so um that is the explanation for why we we would request the number of 22 million we feel that will give us enough latitude uh to be able to set up a a budget that will not um uh exceed that number and we would be able to operate with flexibility thank you very much i've concluded the presentation thank you ma'am mr tastani i think you wanted to make note of some highlights yes um arlene's

060extremely thorough obviously in her presentation and her explanation but i want to highlight a few things that are i think are really worth noting here and that people need to really understand as we get into the next several months of the budget um despite the dip in enrollment i know she mentioned that a couple of times people will look and say well um you'll be able to consolidate services in a district this size with as many classrooms as many schools across the district there will be no savings realized because of a dip in enrollment unless there's a concentrated dip in one grade in one school we cannot cut any staffing in order to realize any savings second point i've heard this already a number of times from some of our uh officials that oh you

061have a ton of money from the federal government this is not designed to supplant these are funds to provide additional services and support to students and families due to the impact of the covet 19 pandemic period so when you hear that out there oh there's all this money out there if that is the case then we need to start scaling back next year the services that we've added to provide to students in order to absorb those folks through attrition if not we are going to lay those folks off and we are already in a critical position it is borderline crisis when it comes to staff third point the 8.5 million dollars that miss baptise perez made the motion covers as you can see increases in salary and benefits to staff who already underpaid that number

062should be closer to 23 and a half million dollars if we are going to offer a competitive salary schedule for our teaching staff as in other comparable districts so eight and a half gives us status quo that's all it does as you can see the city has over an eight-year period not even increased the budget one percent when i talk to my colleagues across the state the average increase that these folks are asking for from their local municipality are anywhere from four to six percent this year because of the covet we're seeing numbers up to seven and eight percent and they will get that they will get that will we get twelve percent probably not but we at least deserve a competitive increase in order for us to start to begin to close the gap

063here in bridgeport um as was mentioned almost a one and a half million dollar decrease in the proposed budget of the governor he got mad at me the last time and he'll get mad at me again this is an election year november is an election year people in bridgeport elect the governor bridgeport hartford new haven they elect the governor all the other towns do not bring in the democratic vote for the governor so if he will not support bridgeport bridgeport shouldn't support him now we did i did send a letter uh an email to our city council folks when i got the information on what that impact would be on his proposed budget to our delegation i did hear back from uh representative philippe he is up there and he's acknowledging a fight but our

064city council folks need to be held accountable as well crickets crickets now i can't say i got one response one response from a former board member who is now on the city council other than that crickets so again this needs to happen um i don't know what else to say i mean this will maintain status quo as we presented this afternoon we added 11 school counselors to a depleted staff here in the district newtown high school has more school counselors in one high school than we have at central harding ambassador combined we added 10 social workers we need these social workers we added other behavioral supports and clinicians that we desperately need to continue behind lesser funding so it's time we make some noise i know why everybody's here tonight and i appreciate that and

065i support you but now you need to support us we need to get a little louder because bridgeport doesn't make the decisions our delegation is not the ones who are going to vote on the budget up at the state whether you live in bridgeport hartford new haven um old saybrook those are the folks that make ultimately the decisions that will swing the votes so we all need to band together for bridgeport and that's where i'll end okay well articulated thank you does anyone have any questions i know a lot of you were at the finance committee meeting okay so the finance committee has recommended uh that we need yeah i'm sorry yeah i think i just saw somebody else um what yeah as far as the um internal service fund mr siegel why don't we

066spend it down to zero and leave nothing in there that's one of the questions that been asked that we've got all this extra money in the international service fund yet we don't spend it i pretty much know why but can you explain it so other people can understand on our city council and funding levels well i i i wouldn't describe it that way we the internal service fund is the fund that pays the cost of health insurance and workers compensation and and all the various uh fees um associated with maintenance of the connecticut partnership plan as well as the administration for workers compensation so that is the the purpose of of what is known as the internal service fund now prior to 1819 which is the year when the connecticut partnership was was instituted there

067was a surplus in that uh fund of about 2 million and but that was at a time when uh health insurance was self-funded and the the surplus resulted because the expenditures were less than than than revenue with the connecticut partnership we are not self-funding we pay one fee a premium depending upon the health insurance class for for each individual who's covered so we're no longer self-insured so so the first component that i have spoken about in the internal service fund that provides resources to us would be that that that two million dollar surplus now keep in mind that um we're also funding workers comp and we we make contributions for workers compensation and there's always possibility that workers comp claims will exceed the amount of revenue meaning the amount of money that that we are

068contributing and in that case there can be a shortfall so we always want the internal service fund to fulfill its primary purpose its primary purpose is to it exists to pay for health insurance and and workers uh compensation insurance um and and so there always should be um uh there always should always be surplus or reserve funds in that account but in terms of the surplus that exists we we had that 2 million that i've spoken about over the last several years and then uh at the end of 1920 and at the end of we were fortunately able to realize savings due to the modes of operation that were in place as a result of the pandemic and at the present time as i reported to the finance committee inclusive of the 2 million that's

069the pre-1819 amount inclusive about 2 million there's a total of about 20 million dollars now we need those funds in the current year so that we can close the gap in the operating budget he returned to full in-person instruction we are operating in in 2122 as we did in pre-pandemic years and we cannot use essa grants to cover basic operating costs and so the operating budget has a deficit it has a deficit currently that is projected at five to six million as i mentioned the final amount may be less than five million it may be more than six um but we operate on on reasonable fiscal projections and right now the projection is five to six million so the 20 million is going to be reduced by the what we are projecting is five to

070six million it'll be reduced by the actual number at the end of the year when we close but theoretically based on the projection 20 million would be reduced by by six now that would leave 14 million well in 2223 we have to cover the six million that we no longer have in in the operating uh budget and we have escalated costs that may not be covered by new revenue from the state and um and or the city and so we may need to extract from the internal service fund in 12 million dollars or or a higher number but let's just theoretically say it's 12 million well then by the end of next year we would have withdrawn 6 million in the current year 2122 hypothetically because i don't know the exact number yet we're working

071on projections and 12 million in in 2223 well that's a total of 18 million so by the end of next year the internal service fund in terms of surplus revenue to be used to help offset an operating budget gap will be significantly reduced and that fiscal cliff that we have defined and that we are predicting will come sooner than anyone would want okay thank you marlene just in essence it's real quick um if it wasn't for that six million dollars we would dip it into the internal service fund our ask would be six million dollars more for the budget correct correct thank you so now is the the finance committee recommended an increase to the mbr request of 8.5 million dollars is there a motion to accept that recommendation and make that our formal request

072moved by ms brown second second by ms allen all in favor aye aye aye opposed all right any opposed any abstentions okay ocean carries mr weldon could you also please approve the food and nutrition service budget plan is there a motion to approve the food nutrition service plan as a part of this request as presented by the cfo so moved moved by ms baptiste seconded by mr bennehan all in favor all right all right any opposed okay motion carries thank you ms siegel thank you next on the agenda is discussion and possible action regarding redirecting a maximum of 2.4 million dollars in arp slash essr programming to pay supplemental compensation the certified staff retained throughout the covet 19 pandemic mr tastani yes as we discussed at the finance committee meeting some of the discussion that

073was held both with the board of ed and with city collective bargaining units was to fund um what some would call hero pay some would call premium pay uh we're we're calling it a retention um bonus or or whatever you would like to just you know term you would like to utilize but what the discussion was that the city um because they began and they negotiate with the non-certified unions would um would cover those costs through their arp money and that we would just negotiate with the certified staff collective bargaining units the maximum number of dollars that was recommended with 2.4 million that should be plenty um come up with a satisfactory amount that we could reward our certified teachers and building admins who are on the front lines there would be some conditions obviously

074that would be negotiated with those bargaining units but tonight's ask is that the full the board approve a maximum 2.4 million dollars could be less but it will not exceed that amount in order to show our gratitude and appreciation for the efforts that have been made throughout the pandemic on behalf of students and families so when this discussion initially came up it was my understanding that this is not actually a negotiation but you're you're asking us to approve obligating a maximum of 2.4 million dollars in this funding for this purpose and it's my understanding that there would be certain parameters such as um you know people who to receive this would have to have continued their employment into the present correct so that would and then whatever um depending on date of hires and those

075so forth um so those would be negotiated because they are negotiated with the collective bargaining units but i think right now the purpose of tonight is to begin those negotiations with both collective bargaining units well those will begin once the 2.4 million dollars is approved and set aside so what what items what type of items would be negotiated the parameters in which who who would qualify to receive those and how much so if there's a specific dollar amount per person for example and someone was hired in october and they so they missed the first month of the school year they would receive slightly less than somebody some prorated amount right some prorated amount exactly are there any questions yeah okay mr bennett yeah thank you mrs danny i want to be sure that 2.4 million

076dollars um are missing stuff they're going to reset it's exactly that's the amount will be whatever you know like you say whoever come we receive the money of course we're not going to pay for people they don't show up but it hasn't got exactly that the amount is going to for them 2.4 million exactly it's not something more nothing less that would give sufficient funds um to cover everyone that who would qualify it may be less uh it definitely won't exceed that amount and that money exactly is for them it's not for something else that's my question for you it's for the employees whoever whoever worked for them you know for that time it goes directly to the employee okay okay that's my question uh yes uh we discussed at the meeting i believe 1500

077cap per employee correct and now all employees yes we all deserve this but it's important to note that we're not dealing with monopoly money these are real real dollars that have impacts yes teachers are great we need to retain you you need to reward you but we need to realize this is these are real dollars and real dollars can only be spent one time on one thing at a time so that's why it's a little charging when it's brought us brought to us because it was brought to us almost infinite almost as a finished product basically because the city negotiated in the beginning and then we got hit with it so it's just it's just very frustrating to see people thinking about these dollars as they're a limitless supply that can be used for limited

078use limitless uses and we're coming to a head where we gotta face the music one day it's got the money's gonna run out and this fiscal cliff everybody sees we're gonna fall off so i believe you all deserve this money i'm going to vote to approve this money but we need to understand it is not monopoly money it's not fake money with the 1500 cap i'm expecting if all the money is not used it be recirculated back into programming for our children and i don't think anybody should have a problem with that that's all i have my interpretation of this is that this is a not to exceed amount it's not a fixed amount being committed correct if if when you finalize all the details of who gets what based on what pro-rated basis and

079it turns out to be 2.2 million then that's just going to be the number for n correct and that'll be that so this is not just a fixed we're going to provide a total of two points correct we're not going to find the number of folks who qualify and divide that into 2.4 that's not how it works okay i have a question when was it determined that it would be pro-rated uh it was from my understanding from the finance committee that you either qualified for it or you didn't well i mean you're not going to reward somebody who worked six months as opposed to somebody who worked the full year the same right so that's that but that will be a negotiation with the unit the unions they may not agree to that i mean

080that's just a give and take so so in the scenario you know let's say i worked the full year but miss baptiste perez got hired in november and worked you know two thirds of the year should be the fact that somebody came in part way through the year disqualify them completely or should they get something just not the same as someone who worked the complete year but on the flip side if somebody left midway through the year not getting any that's just that's that's why it's a retention more than it just i i suppose i hear what you're saying i'll get you oh hang on um it's just that it is redistributed from student funds and from the last the finance committee meeting it was phrased as the students paying the teachers um and that

081phrasing this is public school students shouldn't have to pay the teachers um and i i just want to be clear as to you know can i throw this out there because as you're talking i'm thinking you know we're proving this not to exceed amount but when these issues are finalized and you do have a final final number do we need to come back to us and say yeah we're good with that as a final not even the final number but the qualifications will we be able to look at that well if it's a negotiated item i guess we would have to approve that yeah so this would be effectively like a side letter or an mou that i would expect to come back to us you want to do that is that fair enough okay

082mr macaron it sounded like you had something to say yeah i do i do but i'm just thinking um i i agree that our that our faculty and our staff do uh do deserve this bonus type of reward but has anybody thought about the fact that maybe our teachers or some of the staff we can give them a personal time off as opposed to paying them have you ever thought of that maybe two or three days off no that impacts student instruction and learning we would not want to do that we've already had enough days where there was lack of sub coverage and that just puts more strain on the staff okay i was just trying to uh help out there yeah about an ideal world thinking out of the box mr lombard thank you

083um mr sestany could you share what were some of the programs that we're going to shelve since we're not going to have this particular amount of money i mean there's nothing specifically that we're going to not do um so i can't say that we're going to not do x because of this there'll just be a little bit less money across the board but um that collectively will in will amount to no more than 2.4 million dollars i do want to say that i don't want to put a lot of parameters because i think it's probably safer to say i'd rather give somebody a little bit more than shortchange somebody that is deserving so i think the parameters that we'd like to negotiate will be pretty simple um a fixed period of time and how much

084time was worked in that fixed period of time i mean other than if you no longer work for us and you work during that time you're not going to come back and receive anything if you're currently employed it'll be based on that i don't want to make this much more time-consuming because somebody has to figure all that out the more parameters we put in it then becomes a burden on our payroll and benefits department who's already understaffed and overworked um we we've been trying to calculate like our perfect attendance initiative for staffing where we incentivize them that's taking a lot of time to figure out i don't want to just continue to put more and more on folks to try to come up with a complicated formula it'd be pretty simple um i think again

085better to give somebody who may not somebody may not get get a little bit more than shortchange somebody on the other end because again we want to retain our staff for 22 23. another question is how much is the the total uh allotment that this 2.4 is coming from what's the total amount what's your total arps or that this would be drawn from 144 million 144 million so 2.4 is coming out of 144 million i think that helps put it in perspective just thank you appreciate that that's okay mr bennehan had his hand up and then in his baptiste breast yeah me yeah thank you mr chair um i want to make clear this and be sure for the record i understand mr joe you say about the program but right now all these people

086this amazing people they risk their life a lot to be out you know be outside and help us to be sure the students in parent can receive information when we asked what was the home tried to save us these people was outside risking the life a lot i was witness especially when they do security they was doing um cafeteria i was there helping with the food and everything it was not easy for them so if they said let's see give it 1500 you know just depend between you and the union how to do it but i prefer if you see the extra money and we gonna all hold extra money listen give it to them they they deserve it because they deserve it a lot they they are missing without them our kids wouldn't have

087an education and you have to understand very something very clearly i believe these people were there for you so i hold you there for them and support them because really really really i don't want they to receive negative information that is no support yes we we i know we are supporting 100 because they work so hard amazing and i know part of your team too in the building that they need to receive and i hope they can how which i can give more of that because you guys receive you know you serve it a lot so i want to be sure that in the record that these people this amazing um um boy staff they need to give what they're supposed to that's what i want to be showing in the record because like i

088say they was there for you i hope that you there for them because they will be happy to receive this extra money that this server and also i always want to be sure for the record that any staff when you buy stuff coming from your pocket and i know something you do it please save that receipt make a copy because some people they think that's not true i know you guys shouldn't do it and sometimes you go extra mile to be sure our students are okay and they receive the education so i want to say that for the record mr chairman a little off topic now but thank you for that miss baptiste perez and then i just wanted to comment on that it was also mentioned by joseph kolovic this is a one-time payment

089the big issue with funding for teachers is the city's lack of contribution to it just as much as we can put pressure on lamont for his shortchanging bridgeport on the budget we need to hold that same pressure onto the city as the city just announced i believe either this week or last week they have a nine million dollar surplus so the money that we're asking we need to hold the mayor accountable for it and we need to hold city council accountable for it the fact that only one out of 20 city council members should be problematic the governor's election is this year the mayoral election is next year and then within two years there will be city council again it takes grassroot organization to start voicing the issue this fiscal cliff with the operations budget

090that we cannot use sr funds needs to be addressed it needs to be urgent i'd rather teachers get their fair pay every year annually than a one-time back pay by the way is that pay subject to tax so as a matter of fact you're gonna get about half of that so that's not even a month's rent so realistically we need to start holding these elected officials in higher office than the board who's in charge of the actual money accountable from all levels or we need to actually just use our voice and vote them out that's just all i have to say thank you there's kids question um i was hoping to get just a quick overview for how the 2.4 million dollar figure was arrived at how did you arrive at 2.4 million the number

091of people that could maximally qualify times fifteen hundred okay so where's the 1500 come from that was the amount that's been discussed for the other on the other end as well from the bea side no from the city side as well okay i thought it was a fair number um some like i said i'd love to give more but with all due respect i think we all agree that this is definitely well deserved and i think it's time we just put it to bed and move on all right anything else i have one thing um just just to clarify certified staff um what would that look like for us it's just the teachers and and members of the bcas that were in buildings that was the discussion okay thank you buildings i'm sorry thank you

092all right so is there a motion to redirect a not to exceed amount of 2.4 million in our esser programming to pay supplemental compensation to certified staff retained throughout the covet 19 pandemic with the chair before do that you can you do rule call so we can know each one of us please i would like to so is there a motion moved by ms brown second by ms allen just add the following parameters with a maximum of 1500 per employee i think we should just i'll let you continue with it i think we should try to leave that latitude to their negotiating process the maximum of fifteen hundred dollars is already discussed and approved at the level of the all right so that's your amendment [Music] all right so there's an amendment to that effect

093is there a second to that by ms brown so we're going to vote on the amendment first um all in favor all right okay motion is amended accordingly so now we're voting on the main menu as amended mr benehan has requested a roll call vote so mr [Music] lombard yes bobby sybil brown christine baptiste perez yes albert benahan absolutely yes erica castillo is this the vote yes i have to abstain due to a potential conflict of interest i have a immediate family member that would benefit as a result of the vote and i see that the board is quite capable of making the decision so i'll abstain okay michael mcarone yes joseph sukulovic yes motion carries so i would expect when everything is finalized that this would come back for the final approval of the

094exact of the year what was what was negotiating the parameters okay last on the agenda is discussion and possible action regarding in-school mask requirements as as everybody's probably aware by now the statewide school-based mask mandate expires on february 28th and subsequent to that date um the decision of whether to continue that or not uh falls to us so i thought since we're a couple of weeks away from that we should have that discussion and decide what we want to do i'll turn it over to mr tastani he's been in front of other districts and what they're doing let me get the discussion going well really it's a matter of um governor's executive order expires it was extended until the 28th on the math school mass mandate it's now in local control and school leaders and

095local boards on how they want to decide to move forward with this it seems you know there's there's a lot of emotion on both sides whether we should remain in a mass mandate or whether we should make it um parent option and that's you know that's basically the extent of it some districts uh most of the districts in our media area look like they are going to go with a parent option uh beginning um on the 28th i believe 28th of february i believe uh for my last conversation stanford is extending it by two weeks to the 15th of march and i'm not sure yet uh the other large municipality in our in our county of norwalk has not made a final decision yet so this is where we're at um at some point we

096will need to move on from from wearing masks or making it a mandatory thing i don't know when that time is um but i do think that this is where we're going and um can't continue to wear masks forever in schools and public schools so at some point we're going to need to make the decision on how we're going to proceed if we're going to make it something that um we just follow the governor's order and let it expire and make it parent choice but or if we want to go a little farther out just to test the waters see how things develop right now we're obviously in a great spot statewide city-wide as well i can't give you the exact positivity rate by day we get a we get it in shifts of two-week

097increments from the city but for example yesterday there was 24 new cases city wide of covet 19 um state positivity rate is now dipped below 4 so i don't know what to tell you at this point but either way whatever decision is made you're going to make a lot of people happy and a lot of people upset now the one thing i will caution is that um people will refer to vaccine rates amongst our students that is where we're at the number is is low compared to other communities i'm well aware of that i think everyone is well aware of that we can't mandate vaccines at this present time that is not in our purview and um so i think we have to operate under the assumption that that number is not going to go

098much higher at this present time it could be impacted based on the decision that's made on the mass mandate it may nudge some parents to change their their minds and and whether they're going to vaccinate their children or not so okay so so the decision is basically one of two things let the mandate expire on the 28th and make it optional beyond that or push it out to some other date that we feel is appropriate so i'll just go around the table that people say what they want to say yeah um i appreciate what the governor is trying to do but i'm also keeping in mind for transition purposes i would my was my suggestion would be that we continued for the rest of the school year and then start off in september see where

099everything is only reason why i'm saying that is because it's off and on is very confusing to our students but also too we don't know what other students home life is like um and to i mean i respect parent choice but i'm also worried about the fact that if you have a kindergartener or another you know first grade student see another student with their math on when their parents want their math to be on and they see another child without theirs on so it may show a little confusion between you know the different ages um so that's one thing that i would keep in mind i mean we can monitor the numbers make sure it's at a decent rate but i don't think we should be in a complete rush to remove it only because

100we don't know what everyone's situation is at home and you don't know who's taking care of who and i just don't want that on us and i i think this is a tough decision for us to make anyway but that's just my feelings on that okay we have a student rep that would like to oh yeah i mean from a student perspective i agree with ms brown we should push it towards the new school year because we just got out of the big wave like i know i did but i'm sure everybody pretty much did or somebody they knew i had coveted during our winter break it's only february we just got out of that people are still having symptoms and i just feel like we shouldn't rush this and masks aren't causing a problem

101in school anyways so what's the point and not getting rid of them i think see how bad the i feel like after we go on spring break things are gonna uptick again so why remove them when we're gonna have to bring them right back i think we should just wait till after the summer because hopefully we get more information like vaccines and wait till the younger kids can get boosters because they were just eligible for that to wait two people if they of course want to get vaccinated to get vaccine and have that opportunity but i think just from a stream perspective we should push it okay skalvik you appear to be in agreement i saw your head nodding yes uh i think this is a decision that definitely should not be made on motion

102emotions it should be made on metrics i i propose that we do something similar with the reopening committee we keep mass in place to the summit we don't even know if we say today to mass until the summer if the fire virus is going to have a resurgence in september or what have you i said we put together a committee made up of maybe a board member union representation parent representation to discuss the parameters where we do remove the mess because back in the day it was hurt immunity double mass can keep you protected and if we make that decision because 50 people show up at a board of education meeting fighting for parent choice i'm off a parent choice too i'm all for parents rights my son goes to this school i want my

103son to have his rights but my son does not have the right to make his teacher sick okay our teachers are in these classrooms with 30 kids in a packed space so i think this is something that teachers should be able to weigh in the board should be able to weigh in and the parents should be able to weigh in and have a conversation and arrive at some sort of metric where we remove the mask mandate and but we can't consider oh let's just do it june 26th and then september 1st we have a 10 percent cover ring and we got to reinstitute okay that's fine i just think then that we all need to start pushing more of our families to vaccinate our children and that that's unfortunate but at some point we have

104the high school numbers are much higher than our elementary middle school numbers because that drives the number up in the community but um there are going to be students and and families that are going to want to remove the mask from their children and unfortunately they they have to be heard as well i have a comment move over to this side of the room you know dominate miss betty spray as far as i'm aware there's no changes in the cdc guidelines regarding mass so i am an agreement at least for consistency it's good to hear from a student perspective that at least a high school student perspective that the mass aren't disrupting the classrooms compared to other articles that are out there nothing's changed from the cdc i think it's better for the students for

105the sake of consistency in the classroom and for the safety of our teachers um that for the time being uh maths are still used in the cloud are still used in the schools and i also agree that it is still cold and flu season and with the with the uncertainty surrounded by whether it's cobit or something else i think it's better to be safe than sorry so you're you're in favor of continuing it past the 28th is there a point in time that you want you think it's appropriate to continue it too i i agree mr sokolovic i think is a combination of a committee as well as guidance from the cdc there's been articles that they'll have updated guidance as soon as next week so i'd rather follow science than follow a motion so

106you're thinking to extend it at this point at this to the end of the school year yes okay miss castillo do you have a position on this yeah um i um am for removing the mess i feel that we are not rushing i think we've been in a pandemic for two years and i think at some point we should start normalizing no longer using the mass i do think that there has been a social emotional impact on our students for wearing the mask especially our little ones data points to children not being major carriers or at risk or that's it it's like hard to say um they are at risk but not as at risk as an adult might be in terms of transmission um and i think that in terms of um the the

107time that's appropriate i i know that we do have spring break coming up there is the possibility that there could be an uptick there so i would recommend two weeks after spring break if there is not an uptick then a major uptick then proceed with removing the mask or going mask optional nice capture okay how are you going to define major uptick well right now this stays at uh less than four percent so if we have an uptick like we just had with omicron that's obviously we should all say remain wearing mass but if we're still in the ballpark of three percent then i think we should remove them so you're saying if if we remain below four percent yes but if we cross the four percent line we should continue yeah to the end

108of the school year okay i have a i have a comment my other concern is that a lot of the testing is now being done at home with self-tested kits therefore if i take a covet test at home i'm not reporting it to the state i'm not calling the city of bridgeport to know what's going on therefore that four percent threshold may have a huge line of ambiguity to it and so is it really four percent or just four percent reported so i think that's another factor that needs to be considered again with the availability of the evidence and now the city shifting towards testing at home and actual reporting if it's not going to be reported i think again i think there are plenty of people that can testify that they got in the

109vaccine and still got very sick and we have to think about our teachers in that same component as far as becoming very sick if a student is transferring the the virus okay to respond i feel that you know at some point sorry um at some point i do think it's it becomes necessary and i do think it's been two years for people to accept responsibility for where they're at with their health so if you're testing positive everybody knows stay home you know to let your school know that you're testing positive you know there's protocols that are already in place for that and i think the school system is familiar enough at this point with what those protocols are so regardless of whether or not they're reporting it to the state and the the number changes

110i i feel that the public is familiar enough with what you know if you're sick stay home i think they're familiar enough with that at this point for us to um continue abiding by that and getting in and having people exercise their freedoms or their their choice and um and deciding you know what's appropriate although i'm going to counter that one more time i'll get to you in a minute but first this high school student had her hand up before me okay go ahead people in the audience you have your hands up we're not gonna we had public comment earlier this is not a public debate i'm no we're not doing that go ahead young lady um i just wanted to say like in the same way that you say that people should know or

111like know the protocol and things to do if they were to test positive it's not something that we can guarantee people will do and people haven't been doing it and furthermore we can't guarantee that people will be listening to their parents and what they want the choice that they want we can't keep tally of every single kid's parents what they decided them to do so if we see a kid without a mask we can't double check every single time that their parent wanted them to do that and also in the same way that you want to like normalize a life without masses again we're trying to bring back normal life to school with things like social events and things like that but in taking off the mass we would have to go back again in

112other things that we've been trying to make normal again so in taking off our masks and getting rid of that protectiveness and like that protection we would have to scale back on other things that we've been trying to bring back if we wanted to keep everything like safe like we were saying but if we were to have a change in wearing masks there would have to be other changes that came with that to ensure safety of staff and students and even though children may not be great carriers of kovid that doesn't take into account the number of like older staff members or like staff members that are susceptible or um at risk because i know that the majority of like my teachers and things like that are um of an older age or they don't

113have the choice of coming to school or not coming to school and wearing the mask is their protection so i don't think it would be a good choice to just take off the masks and just because it's something that we need to get socially used to again okay you were going to say something mrs baptiste perez and also mr macaron he's had his hand up yeah i i'm trying to think district specific and part of the issues is we already have our schools flooded with substitute teachers by following the protocols and virtual learning is not necessarily an option uh right now in bridgeport so we're talking about having classrooms filled with more substitute teachers in case a teacher has covet i don't think that is the best option and there's only but so many months

114left in the school year that um i think as the young lady had mentioned removing the mass will come with additional other protocols that would have to scale back that we have to think about and we haven't put too much thought into that with removing it so there is i think for the time being there still needs to be a lot more thought put into removing the mass than being put into the governor's political choice in an election year okay mr macaron you had something to say yeah i i do um and this is directed to mr tastani um isn't it true that the uh that the city still has a mass mandate in public buildings they currently do that is going to be from what i understand lifted um there's a follow-up meeting regarding

115that uh february 22nd um they wanted to get a gauge on what's going to happen here in the schools but i don't think that's going to impact what they do on the on the city municipal side um i'm just going to play devil's advocate here and take it for whatever it's worth um there's no assurance i mean i can assure students one does not come with a punitive measure for students so if the masks are optional that will not impact any of the activities that are being offered to students you're not going to lose anything it would just be an optional um if you want to wear a mask you wear it if you don't you don't um right but it wouldn't impact what we would offer you or allow you to participate in as

116a school district how much thought was put into that aside from just hearing how much what how much though was put into that it would not be punitive or would it impact students i'm just going to say how much thought i mean since march 11 the day before we cancel my entire life has been spent on coven 19 and making decisions that are best for 20 000 students and 3 000 staff members so if you want to ask me how much thought's been placed into this a whole heck of a lot of thought's been placed into this um i mean at some point we need to move on from this um whenever you guys decide if you decide it's at the end of the school year it's tomorrow obviously it can't be tomorrow but to

117say that there hasn't been an impact there certainly has been an impact on students wearing masks maybe not all students but there has been an impact um and somebody mentioned an uptick after april break why would there be an uptick after april break if everyone is wearing masking acid and acting responsibly right because the neighbor in town is not wearing masks well no there's there was an uptick after christmas it was out an uptick after thanksgiving how did that happen if how did the neighboring towns impact them it's because outside of school these things are not being worn no and i and i understand that but i like you have to be concerned about the entire environment and for the sake of at least consistency it looks like we're not going to come to a

118decision tonight and i think that's why mr sakulavik's suggestion as a focus group and maybe waiting to see what further data is provided by the cdc because now we want to rely on science would be appropriate okay i agree do you have something to say mr lombard i do thank you um i i think what i want to say is as with most things there there has to be compromise there has to be common ground and there's been so many logical things said tonight and there's been one person speaking for on one side kind of on our own but there's been a lot of logical things said on both sides i i do think it it has to be based upon agreed upon metrics and if that's something that's hashed out in a committee or

119where have you something that's in alignment with cdc something that's in line with the city of bridgeport something that makes sense to to the boe i think it needs to be something that is agreed upon measures however i do not agree that that arbitrary date of the end of the school year needs to be anything other than arbitrary you know it could be something where we determine these metrics by sunday in march or someday you know whatever it is and we and once we've got them nailed down we just immediately look at the stats and if we're meeting it drop drop it to uh optional if we're not then keep it in place but to think that if we're meeting the metrics agreed upon metrics that we have to keep it in place just because

120the end of the school year kind of makes sense is four months away i don't think that that's very logical so i am all for finding a agreed metrics the word like this makes sense this makes sense with the cdc this big sense of what's happening we agree to this and then implementing it not and if that means that they stay in place the mandate until the end of the year or until september or what have you so be it but i do think it's important and i'm definitely in agreement with mr sokolovic on that point i do think we need to feel comfortable that we're not arbitrarily or emotionally making a decision that's doesn't need to be that way emotions are always going to be there but so i agree i support coming to

121some some agreement and some metrics but i don't support at the same time saying and we'll wait at least till the end of the year i think what we should do is pick a date say we're going to have this decided by x date and then we can make that call at that point in time so that's my opinion on it thank you i i had kind of a similar thought you know we could we could kind of compromise this and say perhaps we're going to extend this to march 31st and then in mid-march we're going to revisit and see where things stand and if we want to let it expire on march 31st we let it expire if numbers indicate that's because this is a month from now that nothing's really changing or there

122are up ticks then we can choose to kick it out another month and reevaluate in mid april uh and just keep doing that for the remaining four months of the year if it takes us to the end of the year so be it but if we get hard evidence that you know hey it's the end of april the positivity rate is minuscule we can drop it but but i answered the question i have a question okay um what what if we do this if we extend it to march 31st we're going to be asked by a lot of people what evidence do we have us to do this to extend this to march 31. so what are we going what's the answer to our question to that question good question i think i think i

123think it's just to say i think it's us as as a board of non-scientists coming up with some some metrics like we may have those numbers tomorrow but it's so i you know it's just we need to feel like okay this is this is black and white this is what we're going by and i think we're already at those numbers right now but i think you know we're already at that place but i think we need to agree this these are the numbers this is the baseline this is not any one board member any one parent any one student this is just this is what it is and if we're already there then we're there you know and i i think one thing that we have to remember is you know saying well we're used

124to it now it's not a big inconvenience just keep it going till the end of the year the fact is when that mass comes off that's a good thing that's a good thing it's not a bad thing so if we can do it in march or april or may any day earlier if it's safe is a good thing so that's what i think about that so we're gonna we're gonna be the ones to say your mask could come off or your mask will stay on but it doesn't matter what mom and dad say well all right we have a student we have a student i also think instead of having just you guys come to the final decision get the actual teachers and students and parents as well because you no offense to you guys

125but you guys aren't in the high schools or the elementary schools the middle schools so you don't know what like first hand how it's going so i think mr tastani should have a round table with some parents some students some teachers from each of the schools just to get their opinion on it because you guys just see it from afar you aren't in actual schools itself so you don't know what we're dealing with you just see it from afar that's just my opinion yeah i was actually going to say the same thing ouch um but as as opposed to a round table and we could do round tables and top survey from the teachers because that is the address population that i don't want to be missing from the schools i don't want to put

126another substitute in a position to get sick and though i'm thinking of that group as well so i think if we can have something like a round table and a survey from the teachers as to how they feel about that i think that's important as well would you like to have some sort of a public hearing i give you for the school community parents teachers uh students i would like to hear of course from the parents and the the the community at large the school community parents students teachers uh staff i just have a question yeah we can put out a survey so it's majority rules is that what well i know exactly i mean at that point it's just to get a sense for what the others think it's it's hard because i think

127what we're gonna hear is a lot of what we're hearing right now you're gonna hear people on one side and people on the other and it's going to be 50 50. so i i i i agree with mr lombard in that um one i i i don't think that we should drop it on february 28th was it right proposed date um because we are the largest city in the state of connecticut and thus because we have that um those population those numbers and population we should be a little more cautious than our neighboring towns so i don't think we should be the first on february 28th but i do think that if some time has passed if other towns are in our area you know um or other major cities have have done it and

128look at what their data suggests i think that they're there there's um something to talk about in in a further conversation after february 28th so i you suggested mid march end of march mr chair i suggested end of march with a re-eval mid-march okay so determine if we should drop it at the end of march right kick it out further so i agree with that ms brown oh albert yeah you were next thank you mr chair um i know they really come you know with the governor you know whatever he said but i befriend and i agree with miss brown say about you know exactly i'm agree with you miss brown because it's not easy to have somebody in club and get sick and somebody you know it's very easy to say oh don't use

129the mac but it's not easy when you have to say goodbye to somebody you know have a virus you know us as one member we have to protect our staff and our students to be sure they're okay you know so whatever you know another people they say oh after february 28 you can use it you know when you say you wanna you know it's fine whatever the city is saying you know it's different from us but admit this time you know i prefer that our student and our staff they are you know they are safe you know and so like miss brown say i'm agree what she said afternoon come because right now we go on a vacation what a family they do vacation they travel they go different places you know where they're coming

130back they got the virus some people got the things the virus you feel like they don't have nothing the other ones like me i have in april last year how the hell i have it i don't know i'm still thinking how i have it and now the doctor said i don't know how you have it and it was very bad because i passed two exactly two weeks in the hospital and i'm passed away you know it's very hard to see um in front of you machines computer and the doctor told me this is the computer what if something's wrong you know you need to say goodbye to your kids it's not easy it's not easy you say oh i'm not going to use math oh because the governor said because they know you have to

131be safe because you the staff have to protect you know student student protect the staff so it's much better than i agree what ms brown said that trying to have it and then we come back and see how much the percent go you know because we don't want nobody we don't want anybody you know get hurt pain and it's easy education always going to stay there education never going to expire the life of any family less than one second they can go away no more comments mr chair i just want to also point out the irony that you said all of that with your mass down just now mr bonham you just said all of that with your mouse down just now because if i just mad guys guys guys i have to be clear

132okay that's fine what's up joe's got your hand up go ahead uh i would like to rewind us back to the beginning of covet and the beginning of school closures we before we reopened the schools in the midst of a pandemic we sat down bea representatives made representatives parent representatives student representatives we came together as a community and made a group decision in order to put our best foot forward and open the schools for our children i believe we need to do this once again to come together so in that vein i would like to make a motion to form a committee comprised of union reps student representatives parent representatives the ble member along with city health department representation to develop parameters for moving the mass mandate in bridgeport public schools to report back after

133spring break okay seconded by ms baptiste perez um i'm going to propose an amendment to that as this is as that is ongoing that we initially um extend the mass mandate to march 30th while that committee develops the work to decide whether we should kick that deadline out further or not but i think we need to we need to have at least some kind of a date for when february 28th comes and goes so i will make that amendment that we extended the mandate to march 30th pending a recommendation to do otherwise by that committee would you consider altering the date until the first day back after spring break what is that what's wrong with spring break yesterday it starts april 15th and then goes through the following week april i mean you want to

134say april 30th yeah i think that'll give us more time to be more to look at you know fine april 30th is there a second to that wait is that an amendment to europe his motion so he made a motion and you seconded it to create this committee but you have made it emotion you made a motion i made a motion to amend this motion to also instill uh extending the mandate to april 30th while that committee does its work i thought you said march 30th i started it and he said he suggested april 30th so april 30. get into the rules that's fine yeah it was the second april 30th that's my proposed amendment it wasn't seconded yet so i can alter it i was there a second so we're going to vote on

135the amendment that we're going to push the mass mandate out to april 30th while this proposed committee does its work well can i wait a minute i think i think the committee needs to have some some some conclusion for the april 30th date not just while they're working and it goes on to may june i think we need to have some resolution by that date all right also can you reiterate who you expect to be a part of this committee union representation student reps parent reps board of education rep city health department reps and of course the superintendent it's the same as the opening committee says this is so similar to what we did to reopen okay yeah it won't even be i don't think it'll be as extensive this time because we only got

136i think i know where you're one issue and i kind of understand because depending on who's representing those folks right that's where the outcome is going to fall right so if i throw a dart and say we're going to get three parents and all three parents say take the masks off then we're going in that direction right if all three students are saying keep them on we're going in that so i understand what you're saying so i think you probably need to get equal representation and then the group as a whole come to a it's an understanding of common ground right i'm just again reiterating the concern that we're gonna you know organize this effort to put together this group to end up with the same contrasting 50 50 you know and know and and

137and be at a standstill or that there's not equal representation because there's it it just so happens that the parents that are selected for this committee are all in agreement about this way or that way and you know but even right now tonight we're not in a 50 50 standstill also will the data make a difference the data will make a difference so is this committee responsible for making the decision for the whole school district no no no based on data just to get the parameters together for us to make our decision right so they'll be the fact finders and provide it to us parents will be fact fact-finding well somebody's going to head this committee i mean who's going to have the commitment yeah i don't know we haven't gotten there yet let me

138bring back this when we reopened the school we as a committee we discussed a lot of things and we brought it back to the superintendent the final plan the superintendent made the final decision and we voted to back that decision based on the recommendations of the committee so yeah so what i did was create a bunch of subcommittees made up of equal representation they met and came back with recommendations and then from there the plan was implemented to open school but that ultimately fell on on my shoulders because it was a superintendent decision not a board decision so we we can create a couple of focus groups not just one not one committee it could be a couple of focus groups to really look at this i just do want to prepare everyone just for

139a scenario um on march 1st there could be a number of students who show up to school without a mascot because their parents told them not to wear it or they didn't have to wear it so just we need to be prepared for that moment because if and i'm just using fairchild wheeler because she's sitting right there if 80 kids show up to fear child wheeler on march 1st without a mask i am not suspending those students i am not telling this the administration to suspend those students because at that point i'm not gonna deprive them of their their their their right to an education because they've taken a stand because this whole country is built on people taking a stand for what they believe in so if 80 kids show up that day without

140a mask we're going to encourage them to put their mask down but i'm not sending them all well mr tastani i feel like that is the decision then because if we really are not enforcing a mandate which i'm not saying i agree or disagree with right now i'm just discussing this if we're really not enforcing the mandate then that the decision is done i have it well i'm just saying we're going to encourage them but if they take a stand like some kids may take a stand it could be a hundred kids if it's two a lot different we could probably reason with two but if it's a hundred kids out of school or if central high school a thousand kids show up without a mask it's just i'm just i'm just i'm just reflecting

141back what i'm hearing it's all right right i get that it's an unenforceable in numbers it's unenforceable right like we see mask violations every single day everybody see one right here there's every single day i'm in classrooms every single day mr chair motion to end debate okay is there a second i don't think we're done with conversation um i wanted to suggest sales for lack of a second i wanted to suggest that we go in the direction of mr sokolovic i agree where we create this committee and they can propose recommendations hopefully based on data submit those to mr tastani we can make a decision as a board based on data and based on those recommendations and my next question is because and this is what we're why we're here we have two weeks in

142two weeks an event is going to happen and are we going to just let that go or are we going to establish some window beyond that to allow this that we're talking this process should be played out by the by mark by april 1st we should be able to get together and come up with a recommendation this is not as hard as opening something like in the height of the pandemic by march 15th no by april 1st we should be able to know what i'm saying if but if so if we extend this to march 30th could you come back here by march 15th with a recommendation absolutely okay so here's here's what we have options to virtually meet now that we didn't have in the past so this could be a lot more convenient

143for folks to participate in any discussions i mean the reopening was we were four months five months into the pandemic yeah there was there was no vaccines people were scared at rightfully so and we got it done in a couple of weeks to be able to come back here and make an educated decision to open school so where it or not weird or optional i mean here's a month we should be able to do that here's what i'm going to suggest because this has gotten a little convoluted is if we take can take a step back and undo and come with a clearer motion so i will withdraw my proposed amendment and i would ask you mr kolovic would propose his initial motion and we'll just start this over okay should we agree to that

144yes all right so i withdraw do you withdraw what you want a second yes this is all off the table now so now i would seek a motion to extend the mask mandate to march 30th 31st and to create a committee comprised of parties as discussed here to develop a recommendation to be presented to this board on march 14th at its board meeting to allow us to make a decision on whether to extend the mandate beyond march 31st or to allow it to lapse okay second second by mrs castillo go what is this ahead lombard mr macaroon i abstain i abstain to that but i have a comment to make okay okay so we're going to wait until april 1st and our neighboring school districts are all going to have the decision made as a

145matter of fact if you already do it's true i don't think i just don't think that we should be in this in this position i think we need to make a decision i i also have a question mr tassani you discussed the fact that with the reopening ultimately it was your decision which we had to have to back is this also ultimately your decision or is it something that we're voting i mean i understand this is a matter of this is a matter of policy that we're talking about tonight what mr testani had to do was his legal obligation he had to open schools right of course we're not obliged to follow the recommendations of this potential new committee either we listened to it and we we've got the way we vote yeah but i

146just don't i just don't agree and then and then again i have to i have to to say again the house of cards of all of this it's almost laughable if on yeah if on march 1st people could do whatever they want to do and it doesn't matter anyway why are we having this discussion i think i think it shows for me i'm looking at it as in good favor that we did put something together that we didn't just rush to do anything so i hear what you're saying mr lombard but i think looking at it district wise we took and we took an opportunity to revisit all avenues before making any drastic decision that could potentially affect our teachers and our students i think that's what we're trying to do and that i think

147will show you know at the end of the day that there was an effort made to make sure these areas were looked at properly that makes sense does that make sense it does it makes absolute sense i'm only saying that even though that makes sense come march 1st even though our mandate goes until potentially march 31st if we're not enforcing it anyway we will enforce it we will enforce it we will enforce it it doesn't have to be an all right yeah as well if those thousand students show up like you said two students or a thousand students we're going to enforce it okay absolutely i'm going to go along with what mr lombard said that statement was kind of irresponsible no disrespect say if a thousand students show up they're not going to have

148any consequences what would you do if a thousand students show up to central and 100 teachers walk out and they have no school to stay in that i mean if this board passes a resolution or a rule they're obligated to intend to follow it and so should the rest of the border okay i just was playing i'm not saying yeah i'm giving you all the scenarios that could happen because it's starting to happen in other places and i just want you to understand i mean if you want we'll we'll suspend every child on march we will encourage them 99 of the students will comply because they do comply but you have to be prepared for everything because the parent may send them to school and say do not wear your mask whatever the consequences are

149because we have parents out there that started today making phone calls knowing that this was going to be discussed tonight i'm just giving you all this scenario i know i know it seems kind of harsh but i haven't i don't i don't i don't believe in miscommunications by leaving things unsaid so i just put it out there on the table so anyway there's a motion on it was thursday yeah yes it was so is there any further discussion on this okay all in favor what's the motion yeah i don't forgot the motion so we withdrew all the original emotions and amendments that's all off the table and i made a motion to extend the mask mandate to march 31st and in the interim that a committee comprised of the various groups previously discussed be established

150and that they provide a recommendation to this board on at the march 14th meeting to enable us to make a decision on whether to continue the mandate beyond march 31st or let it lapse some will we already did that oh how about you just get reminded okay that's good yeah okay so all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions okay motion carries second all in favor aye opposed thank you bye good night [Music]